The entertainment industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. In particular, the adult entertainment industry is estimated to comprise a market of greater than $50 billion dollars a year. The gentlemen's club and cabaret industry within the larger adult entertainment industry alone comprises more than $1 billion in revenue each year.
The gentlemen's club and adult cabaret industry has traditionally been subject to a substantial amount of regulation at the local level with respect to the zoning and conditional use permits associated with adult cabaret services. Recently, various court decisions have authorized additional levels of regulation with respect to the performers in adult cabarets and gentlemen's clubs. These regulations include distance requirements from dancers, anti tipping regulations, and the prohibition of contact between performers and patrons. Special types of performances which require close proximity or contact between the performer and the patron have in the past been a substantial source of revenue for the gentlemen's club industry. Thee types of performances have been called “lap dances,” “table dances,” and other names indicating the type of performance which is performed in close proximity to or in contact with a gentleman's club patron.
Some estimates of revenue from such services have ranged from 30 to 50 percent of the gross revenue generated by adult cabarets and gentlemen's clubs. Recent decisions by courts in the United States, and recent local legislation at the city and/or county level acting to constrict or eliminate such special services have resulted in serious loss of revenue to such clubs.
The Internet and other live area computer networks can provide audio and/or visual transmission of performance information from gentlemen's clubs. Adult entertainment on the Internet through membership sites and other forms of businesses generates in excess of 1 billion dollars a year in revenue for the adult on-line entertainment industry. To date, such entertainment generally comprises access to photographic material through photographic galleries or through e-mail transmission of photographic files access to literary material such as erotic stories, and access to low quality video conferencing wherein audio and video is not synchronized and is severely limited due to bandwidth restrictions over networks such as the Internet.
Recent developments in the availability of broadband connectivity present the opportunity to deliver video conferencing of a higher quality in which audio and video can be synchronized, allowing synchronized performances such as dance performances to be transmitted over the Internet.
A need exists for a method and system for providing access to performances such as dances without implicating local regulations restricting specific types of such performances that require proximity and/or contact with a patron. A need also exists for a method and system to increase patronage at gentlemen's clubs by effectively utilizing wide area computer networks. A need also exists for a method and system incorporating higher quality video conferencing wherein audio and video are synchronized, as is necessary in the transmission of dance and other performances. There is also a need to present high quality adult entertainment in audiovisual format that is of an erotic nature, such as the content that is traditionally seen at gentlemen's clubs and adult cabarets.